Pope Francis The Great… Betrayer
Pope Francis to group of Protestant visitors filmed with him at the Vatican…
“I’m not expecting any of you to join the Catholic Church. Please understand that’s not what this is about. What we are talking about is a unified position to go before the world and say we are proclaiming Christ as the only hope of salvation.”
To read more quotes from Pope Francis to individuals click here
Comment:
It is very elementary Catholic theology indeed, that we cannot separate Christ from His Church. How can someone be elected to the highest office in the Church without believing that fundamental truth? How many other bishops and priests do not believe that the Church is necessary for salvation? How can we have a true relationship with Christ, if we reject the Church which He established? Clearly, the unbelievable things Pope Francis is saying to all and sundry do not form part of the authentic teaching of the Church and must be rejected as his own (incredible) opinions, and it must concern us all that he is leading souls seriously astray. Apart from praying, and using all available means to educate ourselves and our readers on key doctrines, however, is there anything we can do about this scandalous pontiff? Should each of us be writing to Pope Francis, as individuals, to ask him what he is playing at? What does he think he’s doing? Of course, most of us would use more diplomatic language, that’s a given, but should we be engaged in contacting the Pope to… well… ask him what the dickens is going on? We could say that we no longer know the answer to the age-old quip: “Is the Pope Catholic?” Well?
Comments (83)
I would encourage everyone to write to Pope Francis to express serious concerns about the way he is constantly departing from Catholic teaching in his conversations which are publicly reported:
You can write to him at the following address:
His Holiness, Pope Francis
Bishop of Rome
Apostolic Palace
Via del Pellegrino
Citta del Vaticano
Vatican City State, 00120
Europe
phone: 011.3906.6988.10.22
(if you speak Spanish you may wish to ring and leave your number for him to call you back. Worth a try 😀 )
I plan to write to express my serious concerns about his stated beliefs which are contrary to traditional Catholic doctrine, and to urge him to consecrate Russia to Our Lady in the way specified by Our Lady herself, i.e. with all the bishops of the world at the same time. In that way, I plan to explain, the spiritual blindness which is currently afflicting the hierarchies of the world, himself (respectfully!) included, will be lifted.
Anything is worth a try at this stage folks. Go for it! It certainly beats the idea proposed by one of the bloggers on the link in the above blog article – if you take my advice and write to the Pope, rather than resort to other forms of self-help you’ll avoid life in prison… 😀
Perhaps it would be better for us to contact the editor of La Republica, since he and the “pontiff” have a truly remarkable affinity.
Good idea editor – what is needed, postage wise, to get to the Vatican City?
Gabriel,
Sorry – just seen this question. I’m afraid only Miss McMoneypenny could tell you the price of overseas postage – that’s not my department. However, I don’t think it’ll be much for one letter. Just make sure they put an airmail sticker on the envelope!
All you need to do is ask the post office to send your letter to the Vatican City. Cost me 97p.
Ps. I’m NOT Miss McMoneypenny
Petrus,
I think I’m right in saying you have to take overseas letters into the PO to be weighed, it’s not just the size of envelope like for local UK post, isn’t that right?
I’m not Miss McMoneypenny either!
MM,
I think they only weigh envelopes that are A4 size. They didn’t weigh my letter.
Petrus,
So if we buy stamps to the cost of 97 pence, that should be enough to get it there?
I think you still need an airmail stamp.
Only just noticed the question posed by Gabriel Syme regarding the cost postage wise to reach the Vatican. Having sent the odd letter to Rome and the price amounted to about £3.20. As you say make sure theiris an airmail sticker on the envelope.
My letter (small envelope) cost 97p but I did have to have it weighed.
I think we need to speak properly now
This is blatant heresy folks
Now I urge your readers to read Fr Luigi Villa’s final battle article just before he died.
I am not joking – it will blow your heads off. I am still reeling
If you email Dr Adessa he will send you the PDF in English. I am gutted by it
Fr villa decided that the time for prudence is over. He used a battery of ammunition to ram the Vatican. You have to read it!
Would you post a link to that pdf?
I need to study the video but the quote given is dreadful. What a terrible pope.
Email me and I will send you the PDF in English.
DominieMary,
I wouldn’t read too much into this Fr. Villa business. The claim being made about Fr. Villa, the so-called mission he was sent on by Padre Pio and Pius XII, is unsubstantiated with any solid, irrefutable evidence. When we cut through all the hype and curiosity concerning this priest, there really is nothing underneath to support the wild claims being made in his regard. I urge serious caution here, the main purveyors of the Fr. Villa conspiracy stuff are those of a sedevacantist/schismatic mindset.
That’s not to say there aren’t Freemasons operating within the Curia at a high level, which is very likely. It’s just to say that they’re not as widespread as some of the more extreme element would have us believe.
The Pope is certainly no Freemason. But, as the late Michael Davies suggested, which I think is bang on, they didn’t need one of their own in the Chair of Peter. It was enough to have a Pope who thought like a Freemason. In fact, we’ve now had several such Popes since the Council, all men imbued with the spirit of the French Revolution. And that situation is actually worse than outright imposters having been placed on Peter’s Throne.
I agree with Athanasius because some of these things cannot be proven. If you read and study it alot you could get bitter. I always heard if you are sick or anxious or something then your defenses are down and you are easily tempted so you should stay away from anything that disturbs your peace of soul.
There may be horrible things that have happened but the remedy is to keep the Faith and to pray the rosary and make reparation. So knowing all the details doesn’t matter. That said, it’s beyond weird that, as Bishop Fellay pointed out, Pope Paul VI’s mother’s tombstone is masonic. But it doesn’t prove she was one, and it’s only hearsay that Pope Paul had her stone made.
This pope appears to have free reign in The Vatican, unlike Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict.
Ed: This thread should have been closed end of July and has obviously slipped through the net. Am closing it down now. The reason for Pope Francis’ “free reign” should be obvious by now so no further responses required.
Can you give an email address for Dr Adessa and who is he anyway?
If you email me at domstemp@gmail.com
I will send you the PDF in English
Dr Adessa worked for Fr Villa in the fight against freemasonry. Fr Villa died 2012 after his final battle. He said that Pope B would resign by Easter 2013 and he did. Pius 12 employed Fr Villa to fight masonry in the Church
Thank you – I will do.
Hi Editor,
I find this very interesting. I acknowledge your distress at this situation but wondered how it came to be?
You ask in your original post
‘How can someone be elected to the highest office in the Church without believing that fundamental truth?’
How do you suggest this happened and do you think there is a purpose behind it?
‘How many other bishops and priests do not believe that the Church is necessary for salvation?’
Is this a valid concern for the Catholic church? I mentioned before a split in the church; do you think this is a real proposition?
‘How can we have a true relationship with Christ, if we reject the Church which He established?’
Following this line of thought: Are you proposing the rejection of Catholicism under Pope Francis? Whom would you regard as God’s representative on earth? Is it necessary for Catholics to have a papal figure to guide them?
Sorry, I cannot cover my naivety. I do find this to be a very curious state of affairs. I am also currently unwell in bed and possibly thinking about this more than I should….
Louise,
You ask some important questions. How is it possible? Well, it was foretold by Our Lady of Fatima that a diabolical disorientation would infect the Church and it would begin at the top. You can find all the information about Fatima at this link:
http://www.fatima.org
Hi Louise,
Good to hear from you again.
As Petrus says, you ask some very important questions and he gives you the link to the Fatima website. I paid a flying visit just now and they have changed their layout somewhat, so in case you want quick access to the basic facts, click here.
I know you read our blog so you’ve probably noted that I’ve said, more than once, that but for the fact that the current horrendous crisis in the Church was foretold, I wouldn’t be a Catholic today. I’d probably be joining the Humanist Society!
But the dreadful things that are happening today were actually foretold as far back as the 17th century when Our Lady appeared to a nun called Mother Mariana in her convent in Quito (Ecuador) and told her that in the 20th century the Church and the world would suffer a grave decline in morals. She mentioned, particularly, marriage. And if you think about how strict things were in the 17th century, that would seem a most unlikely scenario at the time. Our Lady asked Mother Mariana to be a “victim soul” – that is to take a greater than usual (so to speak) share in suffering, in order to make up for the terrible sins to be committed in our times. That the prophecies of Quito and Fatima have come true in my own lifetime, is sufficient to keep me hanging on in there!
I know much of this will seem strange to you, Louise, but as I’m sure I’ve said before, we just cannot make sense of the Church without taking account of the supernatural. God is very much active in our world – and he uses all possible means of warning us that we are heading in the wrong direction, in order to save us from the terrible consequences of our rejection of His laws.
I notice you ask if the Church needs a pope. Yes, it does, because that is how Christ set up the structure of the Church when He said to Simon “You are Peter [meaning “rock”] and on this rock I will build My Church” Thus Jesus set Simon (thereafter called Simon Peter) at the head of the Church. Christ then added “…And the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it…”
In other words, despite the various crises in the Church, and awful scandals, which have afflicted the Church throughout the ages, it will never fail because Christ and His Church are one. I could write more on this but already probably have written too much to take in, in one post. I do tend to ramble…
And I’m rambling now. Feel free to ask any more questions if what is here is insufficient. I’m off to look for my thinking cap 😀
Thank you Editor and Petrus,
I am trying to understand all this.
I read the link to Why Fatima? and it was informative. You were right when you said you knew this would all seem strange to me!
Has the Catholic church faced something akin to this before? Is there a precedent that informs you of what to do if you believe your Pope is, in fact, damaging, your religion (apologies for any assumptions made here!)?
If I have understood things correctly then your greatest concern is about the devil’s taking of souls; would that not be the Pope’s raison d’être?
This is all obviously a lot more complicated than this, but it is the one question that I keep coming back to.
Louise,
Again, you are asking some excellent and important questions.
“Has the Catholic church faced something akin to this before? Is there a precedent that informs you of what to do if you believe your Pope is, in fact, damaging, your religion (apologies for any assumptions made here!)?”
Yes and no. The Church has gone through times of trial in the past but never on the scale of what we are seeing now. The Arian heresy spread like wildfire in the 4th century and St. Athanasius stood against it. He apparently said, “They have the buildings, we have the Faith.”
With regards to what informs us of what to do if the Pope is damaging the Faith, we cling to the Faith as it was taught for almost 2000 years. Specifically, the words of St. Vincent of Lerins:
“What then will the Catholic Christian do, if a small part of the Church has cut itself off from the communion of the universal Faith? The answer is sure. He will prefer the healthiness of the whole body to the morbid and corrupt limb.
“But what if some novel contagions try to infect the whole Church, and not merely a tiny part of it? Then he will take care to cleave to antiquity, which cannot now be led astray by any deceit of novelty.
“What if in antiquity itself two or three men, or it may be a city, or even a whole province be detected in error? Then he will take the greatest care to prefer the decrees of the ancient General Councils, if there are such, to the irresponsible ignorance of a few men.
“But what if some error arises regarding which nothing of this sort is to be found? Then he must do his best to compare the opinions of the Fathers and inquire their meaning, provided always that, though they belonged to diverse times and places, they yet continued in the faith and communion of the one Catholic Church; and let them be teachers approved and outstanding. And whatever he shall find to have been held, approved and taught, not by one or two only but by all equally and with one consent, openly, frequently, and persistently, let him take this as to be held by him without the slightest hesitation.”
Louise,
Something central to Christianity which is not understood by many people today, sadly, is the fact that – unlike probably every other area of life – if we wish to check on the authenticity of a teaching, we must be able to trace it back to the earliest days of the Church.
If we want to check on whether or not our computer is reliable, we will want to have the latest software and anti-virus updates etc. Ditto other areas of life such as fashion, home furnishings etc. We want the latest. We see someone’s home (e.g. an elderly person’s home) and note that the furnishings and decor is really old, and “in need of updating” as the estate agents say. We wouldn’t leave it like that – we would get Petrus on the job 😀
The opposite is true of Church teaching. Even teachings which were not formally declared to be binding on the faithful (i.e. something we must believe) until relatively recently, must be demonstrated to have been believed by the whole Christian community, everywhere, and always.
Hence, today, the Church is in crisis due to the rejection of this key principle of the Faith.
The Modernists – including, shockingly, Pope Francis – want to embrace novelties and reject certain teachings which have always been believed. However, because Christ promised to be with His Church until the end of time, no pope will ever make any false teaching part of the body of Christian doctrine. What a pope says in private or even in speeches, is not (necessarily) part of the teaching of the Church. So, shocking as it is to witness Pope Francis’ Modernism, we know that he cannot make any of it binding on us and we have a duty to reject it. Nevertheless, we cannot overstate the damage done to the Church by Modernists, and especially by the Modernist Pope Francis.
Within Catholicism, the two central planks of the Faith have always been Tradition (as described above) and Scripture. Both are of equal importance in the Catholic Church. Neither will ever contradict the other, so when Modernists try to cite Scripture to oppose Tradition (as they do) it doesn’t work.
Anyway, I hope this amplifies a little what Petrus has said in his excellent response to you.
And feel free to ask any more questions, as you please.
But here’s one for you – whatever happened to your avatar? 😯
Thank you for your replies again Petrus and Editor. I think I understand more now!
I have no idea where my avatar has disappeared to! I sign in using Facebook and it normally uses my profile picture from there…. Tis very strange indeed!
Louise,
I’m guessing that it is signing in via Facebook that causes the disappearance of your avatar. As far as I understand these things (and I don’t, really!) the avatar is attached to your email address and that has to be the same email address you used to create the avatar. Not sure if it only works when you sign in with WordPress – that is, directly at the blog here – but my guess is that yes, signing in via Facebook won’t attach the avatar. It IS only a guess, however – I really don’t know.
Anyway, glad you feel a little more knowledgeable now, and understand better about the crisis in the Church. You’re a terrific student! 😀
Editor,
The paragraph quoted above is scandalous. However, how do we know that Pope Francis actually said those words. The man in the video seems to be paraphrasing Pope Francis. Is there any proof that the pope said what he is reported to have been saying?
Having said that, it really wouldn’t surprise me.
Petrus,
I take it you haven’t read the article (link provided above) which quotes several people quoting Pope Francis and asks the key question: why would all these people lie about Pope Francis? Click here if you missed it.
Obviously, Scalfari wasn’t lying when HE said that Pope Francis had assured him that he (and other atheists) needn’t bother about the Church (or God, for that matter), that as long as they all do their best, they’ll get to Heaven.
Sorry, but I’m done clutching at straws. He’s had plenty of opportunities to deny what is attributed to him and he hasn’t done so. Common sense dictates that if people all over the world are saying that Pope Francis tells them they don’t need the Church to save their souls, that the Vatican issue a very clear, unambiguous statement to counter these malicious lies! Or clarify “misunderstandings” – or whatever. To date, neither the Pope himself nor Fr Lombardi nor anyone else in the Vatican, have denied or clarified anything.
And in case anyone missed it, the young man who looks like a Catholic priest in black standing right beside the Pope in the video shots, is not a priest at all but the Rev Tony Palmer, Evangelical Pastor who was recently killed in a motorbike accident. This was reported on another thread. So, there’s one of the Protestants who counted Pope Francis among his personal friends and quoted him (and we all heard the Pope on video to Tony Palmer’s charismatic conference) reassuring Protestants that they needn’t convert, who has now gone to meet his Maker. I wonder how Pope Francis felt on hearing of the tragic death of Mr Palmer?
In summary, Petrus, I have no problem at all believing every single one of the quotes attributed to Pope Francis on the video and in the blog article. Many of them I’d already read elsewhere. And, as I think the blog author points out, none of these people were trying to discredit Pope Francis – quite the reverse. They hail him as a prophetic figure, full of charity. They are, of course, spectacularly wrong.
Editor,
Yes, I did miss the link. I watched the video but missed that link. I will read that ASAP.
I would like to ask the question…
Is there some agenda somewhere within the Church to force a schismatic event upon us?
I think schism will occur after the synod when ‘solutions’ will be found for divorced and remarrieds in the name of pastoral reasons
Fr Martin a famous priest who has been on EWTN is predicting schism. Has done openly at a conference
Summa,
I’m afraid, repetitive though it is, the answer to your question is that the “agenda” manifestly at work in the Church with the aim of changing/destroying it, is of diabolical origin. Always, of course, the Devil uses people (whether “useful idiots” or “willing helpers”) to further his aim, which is to prevent the salvation of souls. There are some of these willing helpers (and no doubt useful idiots) within the Vatican walls working to change the teachings of the Church because they think – perversely – that they can improve on what God has revealed.
There has been a de facto schism for many years now. One of our readers has been writing to the Vatican since the end of the Council, seeking action to put right the diabolical disorientation within the Church in Scotland. He always heads his letters “Ref the De Facto Schism of the Catholic Church in Scotland” and not once, in their replies, has any prelate corrected him on this statement. Right across the world now, we have the “traditionalists” versus the “liberals” and the “traditionalists” versus the “neo-conservatives” and so on. The “traditionalists” are those who have not changed their beliefs one iota, Council or no Council. The rest are, in varying degrees, complicit in the revolution that is taking place before our very eyes and which has already caused the de facto schism which we are witnessing across the world.
This is not a time for faint hearts. Strong faith is required now, as never before. And then some …
This link show exactly has been happening to the Church for decades as I have said before.
http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/837-whatever-happened-to-christian-society-freemasonry-happened
“Is there some agenda somewhere within the Church to force a schismatic event upon us?” Yes, it’s laid out totally in The Permanent Instruction of The Alta Vendita. This Masonic document outlines how they shall bring about a new mind set within the Catholic Church, by gradually influencing seminarians who will eventually rise to positions of power as bishops cardinals and hopefully for them a pope of their making.
Robhaidheuch
Isn’t that what the Mother of God warned about at Fatima? Did I read (somewhere on this blog I think) that in the Third Secret (suppressed) there is mention of Freemasonry? Also at Quito. It’s definitely all been prophesied.
Editor, Joseph, Robhaidheuch: apologies, I was punching out a rhetorical question (my poor keyboard) 🙁
Yes, the devil is farming on fertile ground it seems.
+Schneider has stated Mother Church is is schism. Franciscus consorts with and gives encouragement to schismatics, but has made no schismatic statements ex-cathedra and cannot. But Protestantism has entered Mother Church evinced, typically in a multitude of schisms – a la Protestantism. How many clergy actually believe in the Real Presence? From some of the churches I have visited and, unfortunately, NOMs attended, i find it hard to believe that they do, and, that the Real Presence is actually residing in the tabernacles – if you can find them, that is. Franciscus and his new found buddy, Welby, who runs a church making decisions, not from The Holy Ghost, but from “conflict resolution specialists” and “mediation” firms. We can only find orthodox clergy, stick with them and hold on tight. Even ‘fence-sitting’ clergy are becoming embarrassed by Franciscus and beginning to speak-out.
“I’m not expecting any of you to join the Catholic Church.”
It’s just as well if this message from the Italian Evangelical Alliance is anything to go by: http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/07/since-catholic-leaders-arent-clear.html
They conclude that they are “unable to start and follow-up any initiative or ecumenical opening with regard to the Roman Catholic Church, inviting all evangelicals at the national and international level to exercise sound biblical discernment (1 John 4:1) without giving way to unionist anxieties contrary to Scripture”.
It seems to me that the only effect all this ecumaniacal nonsense (‘unionist anxieties’) has had is that the protestants have, for the most part, drifted even further away from the Church. (In the case of the Anglicans it’s been more a headlong dash reminiscent of lemmings!)
CD.,
Exactly. The devil has used this whole ecumenical nonsense to keep people OUT of the Church and to take Catholics away from it, at one level or another.
I am unsure if writing to the Holy Father will have any effect, his “humility” is all so widespread and out there. He does not appear to believe (or he has no ability to communicate effectively).
If i do write I am unsure as to what to say, profitably, to Christ’s Vicar. I have little faith in him or his quoted statements. How do I know what statements are really from the Holy Father and which are false quotes?
Any ideas most welcome……..
Graeme,
Editor makes a really important point above. If any of those quotes were false then Fr Lombardi would have been denying them quick smart.
Graham Taylor,
I agree with you. There’s very little point in writing to Pope Francis because he is imbued with the spirit of liberalism. I’m not saying His Holiness has bad intentions, just that he’s worlds apart from the Catholic Popes the Church had up to Vatican II. In fact, even John Paul II is beginning to look like St. Pius X in comparison to Francis. As Bishop Fellay rightly observed in his regard, we have, for the first time, a true modernist in the Chair of Peter.
With this in mind, I have pasted below a few paragraphs from an article I had published recently. I think they are very relevant to this thread and to the present situation.
‘…It is a great tragedy that so many Catholics were ill-prepared for the onslaught that was to follow in the wake of Vatican II. If only more had been familiar, for example, with the prophetic wisdom expressed by Pope Gregory XVI in his 1832 Encyclical Mirari Vos, who wrote: “To use the words of the Fathers of Trent, it is certain that the Church ‘was instructed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles and that all truth was daily taught it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.’ Therefore, it is obviously absurd and injurious to propose a certain ‘restoration and regeneration’ for her as though necessary for her safety and growth, as if she could be considered subject to defect or obscuration or other misfortune. Indeed these authors of novelties consider that a ‘foundation
may be laid of a new human institution,’ and what Cyprian detested may come to pass, that what was a divine thing ‘may become a human Church’…”
…One of the principal errors to have arisen from this ignorance in our times is the belief, in thought if not by open declaration, that the pope is not just sometimes infallible but rather at all times impeccable. Therefore, no matter what the pope says or does in the exercise of his ordinary magisterium it is incumbent upon all to blindly obey him. A similarly erroneous thought is held with regard to the bishops. How far this mistaken belief is from the teaching of the Church, however, is exemplified by St. Paul in Galatians 2: 11-13, who recounts how he “withstood Peter to his face because he was to be blamed.” Commenting on this Scripture passage, St.Thomas Aquinas writes: “There being an imminent danger to the Faith, prelates must be questioned, even publicly, by their subjects. Thus, St. Paul, who was a subject of St. Peter, questioned him publicly on account of an imminent danger of scandal in a matter of Faith…” (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 33, a. 4).
St. Robert Bellarmine concurs with St. Thomas in this matter and distinguishes for us between legitimate resistance and forbidden judgment. He writes: “Just as it is licit to resist the Pontiff who aggresses the body, it is also licit to resist the one who aggresses the soul or who disturbs civil order, or, above all, who attempts to destroy the Church. I say that it is licit to resist him by not doing what he orders and preventing his will from being executed; it is not licit, however, to judge, punish or depose him, since these are acts proper to a superior” (De Romano Pontifice, lib. 2, chap. 29, in Opera Omnia [Paris: Pedone Lauriel, 1871], vol. I, p. 418).‘
I think the old Legion of Mary rule about putting in all the effort possible and leaving the results to God, is important here. It would maybe be a waste of time writing to the Pope in human terms, but not in God’s eyes. We really should make every possible effort to make our concerns known. I’ve been reading this blog long enough to know that the “just pray” mentality is not good enough. Prayer and action go together. I plan to write just a paragraph to say I am shocked at the number of times His Holiness has said people can be saved without the Church, and ask him to publicly withdraw those statements. That’s all I plan to say and then leave it to God’s operation of graces.
Nicky
It certainly can’t do any harm, whatever good.
Agreed – any effort we make will win graces and that’s marvellous.
I will throw together a short letter in the days few days and send it off. I will try to work in a sentence to the effect that since His Holiness manages to telephone and write to every dissident in the world, a reply to this epistle will be greatly valued. A tad more tactfully phrased, of course, as is one’s wont, but, making the point nonetheless. As one does 😀
Editor,
I have written a letter to the Pope and it doesn’t miss the target. I finished the letter by imploring him to consecrate Russia in union with all the bishops. Whoever opens the letter will no doubt see that last line and head for the nearest dustbin!
That’s brilliant, Petrus. It’ll be Tuesday or Wednesday before I can get mine written due to various appointments, but written I will get it!
If anyone wishes to post their letters here for our edification or just to show off, feel free – but don’t feel obliged. Some of us are shrinking violets, ever so ‘umble (now that it’s the fashion!) but if your letters don’t reach the Pope himself, you can at least be sure that someone in the Vatican will read it here. Or so they tell me 😀 So, if you are happy to share it with us, you are more than welcome to post a copy of your epistle on this thread. If I can compose one that is remotely printable, I’ll post it here… that’s a threat 😀
Petrus,
I would love to read your whole letter if you feel OK about putting it on the blog. If not, I will understand.
Margaret Mary,
I wrote to the pope in Spanish, so I will give a loose translation here. It flows a lot better in Spanish 😉
Most Holy Father,
I apologise if my letter is difficult to understand. Spanish is not my first language. It pains me to have to write to the Vicar of Christ in such a way, but I feel this is necessary.
Some of your comments, Holy Father, have been quite simply outrageous. It is an abomination for the pope to depart so dramatically from Catholic Tradition. You tell a divorced and remarried woman that she may receive Holy Communion! You tell non Catholics that they do not need to convert to the Catholic Church! It would appear that you do not believe in the sanctity of Marriage or the dogma “Extra Ecclesiam Nulla salus”.
Holy Father, your comments cause confusion and fuel apostasy. You are making it very difficult for ordinary Catholics to defend and promote Catholic teaching, particularly in the workplace.
It is false charity for you to affirm non Catholics in their false religion. Surely you know that Christ cannot be separated from His Church? Salvation can only be found in the Catholic Church.
Holy Father, in these difficult days we need a pope who has the strength to defend the traditional teaching of the Church, not a pope who seeks the approval of the secular media. Please defend the traditional teaching of the Church!
I know you have a strong devotion to Our Lady. Please follow The request made by Our Lady of Fatima and consecrate Russia, in union with all the bishops of the world, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Only this can bring lasting peace and an end to the crisis in the Church .
Petrus,
That’s a really first class letter and I don’t just mean the stamp!
So we know that at least two letters are going, three if Gabriel Syme can find someone to lend him the price of a stamp 😀 and assuming he remembers to put an airmail sticker on the envelope, so, let’s hope Papa Francis gets to read at least one of them, preferably mine (kidding!)
Instead of cowing to all of these Protestants this Pope should be speaking out every day about the deaths of the thousands of Catholics at the hands of Muslims. Surely it’s time for him to stop agreeing with every faith except the one he is supposed to defend.
FOOF,
Agreed. It never ceases to amaze me that even the Pope has fallen for the lie that the Church’s purpose is to “make the world a better place” – a falsehood which he repeats at, it seems, every opportunity when meeting with non-Catholics.
Now, it follows that if we all lived a truly Christian life, the world would BE a better place. But the reason why Our Lord suffered and died was not “to make the world a better place” but to save souls from perishing in Hell for all eternity.
Yes, it’s well past time for the pontiff to preach the dogma that the Church is necessary for salvation – and let the Humanists worry about making the world a better place!
At least he’s noticed that planting olive trees hasn’t made a bit of difference to the situation in the Middle East… Click here
Editor
The Pope made his visit to the pentecostals in Caserta and, according to the Catholic Herald:
Pope Francis told the Pentecostals that “the Holy Spirit is the source of diversity in the Church. This diversity is very rich and beautiful. But then the same Holy Spirit creates unity. And in this way the Church is one in diversity. To use a beautiful Gospel phrase that I love very much, reconciled diversity” is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Well, if that isn’t blasphemy it’s perilously close!
And where precisely is the phrase ‘reconciled diversity’ is to be found in the Gospel?
If he really believes this nonsense the question isn’t ‘Is the Pope a Catholic?’ but rather ‘Why is he Catholic?’
CD,
“Why is he pope?” is the question I want answered! There are plenty of dubious Catholics around these days, but it’s worrying that one can reach the highest office in the Church.
Confitebor Domino,
It is unreal to read that a pope would say that about “reconciled diversity” which I take to mean that we just accept the differences from the Reformation and act as if we are all united. The poor martyrs who died rather than do that must be twirling in their graves.
For your interest, folks, and in case it helps others to write, below is the letter I will be posting to the Vatican tomorrow. Feel free to use any of it, if it helps you to pen your own epistle:
Your Holiness,
From time to time I am invited to speak on radio and television in matters concerning the Catholic Church. In one broadcast on radio, BBC World News, not long after your election, I found myself remarking that we appear to have a pontiff who hates the papacy.
As time passes, Holy Father, and with all the respect due to your high office, I am forced to ask myself whether or not we have, in fact, a pope who hates, not just the papacy, but the Catholic Faith itself, or whether your sometimes shocking words represent merely a misguided strategy to catch the interest of outsiders so that they will, at least, come to think well of the Church.
I ask these questions because our deeply perplexed readers keep drawing my attention to interviews and meetings with atheists and Protestants, in which you downplay the importance of the Catholic Church in God’s plan of salvation. After a meeting with Protestants in the Vatican, you are praised warmly by them and quoted as saying: “I’m not expecting any of you to join the Catholic Church. Please understand that’s not what this is about. What we are talking about is a unified position to go before the world and say we are proclaiming Christ as the only hope of salvation.” Yet, Holy Father, you must know that there can be no true relationship with Christ apart from His Church. It is surely this message that any pontiff, who is the Vicar of Christ on earth, must preach.
Again, the reports of your apparent determination to stamp out traditional-leaning Religious Orders (e.g. the Franciscans of the Immaculate) are deeply disturbing. And the fact that you have ordered an Apostolic Visitation of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, which has an above average number of priestly and religious vocations, again due to “traditional leanings”, causes us to question: we have a Pope who seems over-anxious to encourage non-believers and true schismatics (Protestants) to have confidence that they will be saved in their false beliefs, and yet he orders the Visitation of a “traditional-leaning” diocese which is thriving. Add to this the fact that in the capital Asuncion, (to quote one internet report) “the Archbishop is a nuisance, the news about aberrosexuality is all over town” and we are compelled to ask: what is happening to the Pope? Why is he not defending and seeking to spread the authentic Catholic Faith? Why does he praise those who hate what Catholics have always believed and punish those who seek to preserve it?
The Catholic Truth team is now actively encouraging our readers to abandon their diocesan parishes and look to the spiritual safety of the Society of St Pius X, given to us by God to see us through this perilous time of trial in the Church. Their chapels here in Scotland are packed, with newcomers arriving all the time – people who express themselves deeply disturbed by the words and actions of Pope Francis.
I do not mean, Holy Father, to be in any way disrespectful to your high office. I respect the papal office – arguably, at least – more than you do yourself. However, we cannot remain silent as the crisis in the Church, which is, effectively, a growing apostasy, is treated as a healthy “renewal” while the true restoration (via the traditional Mass and vocations) is suppressed by the Pope himself.
Please, Holy Father, reconsider your position. It is unthinkable that we should have a pope who tells the world that Christ’s Church is not essential for salvation. All the Fathers of the Church, and every pontiff prior to Vatican II, preached the key doctrine of the necessity of the Catholic Church in God’s plan of salvation. The Church and Christ are one – as the great convert from Anglicanism, Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, taught with wonderful clarity. By failing to preach the truth that Christ and His Church cannot be separated, Holy Father, you risk the loss of many souls, not least your own.
However, I do not believe, Holy Father, that your mindset will change until the Consecration of Russia has been completed in union with all the bishops of the world, as Our Lady of Fatima requested. I urge you to humbly obey this request from Our Lady which will bring a period of peace in the world, as she promised. Planting olive trees as a symbol of peace has clearly made no difference at all to the warring state of the Middle East. Our Lady did not ask for trees to be planted. Only the requested Consecration will effect world peace, as it will lift the spiritual blindness which has obscured the minds of the post-conciliar popes and, indeed, the entire Catholic hierarchy since Vatican II, and put an end to the diabolical disorientation currently engulfing the Church .
Your faithfully, etc.
“It is unthinkable that we should have a pope who tells the world that Christ’s Church is not essential for salvation.”
If he even thinks about that one line, it will have been worth sending your letter, editor.
I can tell you from my heart that given the buffoonish actions and comments of this completely undignified and heterodox (to be polite!!!), I sometimes question my faith. If it wasn’t for Fatima, the SSPX and other groups, and all of the prophecies of Our Lady unfurling before our very eyes, I would have lapsed. I have only been a Catholic since Easter, so this is the exceptionally desperate state I am in. As Cardinal Mario Ciappi, the Papal theologian between 1955-88 said, ‘in the Third Message, it is foretold that the great heresy begins at the top’. Yet he continued to be the papal theologian and prop up the heresy!!! Any person with an ounce of conviction would have resigned, and done what Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop De Castro Mayer did.
The latest wheeze from Rome is that the Pope is due to preach at a Pentecostal Church, and is scheduled to apologise for the Catholic Church’s influence in hindering Evangelicals in Latin America. Just google it. It is sickening. Then he says that Judaism is still legitimate and that Jews don’t needs to convert. Wrong. See Unam Sanctam and Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, Eugene IV. He should read Mysticis Corporis, Mortalium Animos, Quanta Cura and the Syllabus of Errors.
I just carry on everyday, and just thank God for Editor, Petrus and Catholic Truth at it’s faithful witness to the truth. You saved my faith.
God love you all.
Catholic Convert,
Thank you for your vote of confidence in Catholic Truth – that is very encouraging for us to read.
Don’t let yourself get downhearted about what is going on in the Church at the present time. Think of it a bit differently, that we are privileged to play a small role in helping people to understand the nature of this crisis and to not lose faith in Christ’s promise to be with His Church until the end of time.
We need to exercise faith a bit more (a fair bit more!) than those who lived in times when the Church was strong and highly respected, even by non-believers. Now we have the Church being attacked on all sides, headed by an unfaithful pontiff who is beloved by the natural enemies of the Church. It’s very painful indeed and it must be doubly difficult for someone like yourself – a recent convert by a miracle of God’s grace – to comprehend it all and to persevere. But please do – we need you!
And here’s the latest on Pope Francis – his top ten tips for happiness (not a mention of God, notice, and the only mention of the Church is to insist that we must not “proselytise” Apparently that won’t bring happiness to anyone.) Read the whole article here and check out the Pope’s list of “top ten tips for happiness” published, with undisguised glee, in the dissident National Catholic Reporter.
I mean, you just could not make this stuff up. If you don’t laugh, you cry. Feel free to add the cliché of your choice. Just observe the usual rule, summed up as “Keep Calm & Keep it Catholic”…
Editor
“Keep Calm & Keep it Catholic”
Well it seems that Francis would agree with the first part (No. 3 on his list), but I’m not so sure about the second bit!
The Church gets only an oblique mention and poor God doesn’t get a look in – not even on Sundays, which are now, apparently, only for family.
Then in No. 9 we get “But the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyzes: ‘I am talking with you in order to persuade you,’ No.”
Gosh, what were those Apostles up to? I mean thinking they could teach people the Faith. Who gave them that idea?
What does paralyze is giving people the impression that they are fine where they are – which seems to be all Francis wants to do.
You’re right – you couldn’t make this stuff up. More to the point, you wouldn’t want to!
CD,
Well said. And I, too, was astonished at his statement about Sunday being for “family”. Un-truly-believable.
And no – you wouldn’t want to make this stuff up. If only we could wake up and find it’s all been a bad dream, if not a nightmare 😯
Thanks Ed, but reading that link gave me a migraine. ‘Live and let live’???? Oh yeah, the sodomites and their ilk will love that one. You could make it up. As for his comments on proselytism…St Francis Xavier SJ and St Ignatius of Loyola SJ sure had ideas above their stations didn’t they? Sunday IS for family, at Mass. Although, the Pope did say ‘if you don’t feel in need of God’s mercy don’t go to Mass’. Gimme strength.
When sending a letter to Italy or, I would assume, The Vatican you must put the name and address to the lower right hand corner, beneath the stamp.
Otherwise, it could be rejected by the automated Italian postal system.
Frankier,
I’ve never heard of this. I’ve sent plenty of letters to Rome and I’ve always had prompt replies. Last year I sent a parcel to a friend in Rome and he got it after about three days . I addressed the label as normal.
Frankier,
I took my letter in today to our local PO where they are vigilant about everything. I’ve never been told that I had to re-address the envelope and today it was just the usual weighing and paying. I already had the airmail sticker on 😀
So, I don’t know who told you that, but if it happens to be your PP, it could be a way of deterring you from writing to the powers-that-be… 😯
Editor and Petrus
It was actually about four or five years ago when I used to get Masses said at the tomb of St Padre Pio. I was told that so many letters were not only being undelivered but cheques and monies were being stolen.
I was told then to make sure the name and address was as I have explained. A small diagram was also shown.
I don’t think very many post offices in Scotland will be aware or even interested, so if you don’t get an answer from Pope Frankier it may be because he got your letter and wasn’t too pleased at it being addressed wrongly.
As for my PP, I don’t think he even knows who I am and I am not kidding.
That is odd about the postage. I haven’t heard that before and I’ve had some replies to my letters to Rome but not all. But I can’t think that it would be known around the world about writing envelopes in a special way, so if their computer system doesn’t recognise normal envelopes, it means that they can hardly get any mail at the Vatican.
I could believe that their might be thefts like you describe from post coming from shrines such as St Padre Pio, but they can’t expect the whole world to address envelopes differently – I’d think their computer installer would have had to tell them that they have to allow for mail coming in from all over the world and with their different ways of addressing envelopes (if our way in GB is not the normal way, which I thought it was.)
It will be interesting to see if you get a reply to your letter to Pope Francis.
Josephine
It may be only the ones to Padre Pio`s Pietrelcina to help against theft, I don`t really know, but I can assure you that these were the instructions I got and always adhered to.
The Voice of Padre Pio magazine can be subscribed to in Scotland now so I don`t have the same need to send to Italy. Maybe letters to the Vatican don’t need this rigmarole either.
At the end of the day it isn`t all that much of a hassle to write an address a few millimetres to the right and lower down. After all, if you put a stamp on the left hand side of an envelope it wouldn`t be franked, or Francised even, that is why there is a dedicated position for a stamp worldwide.
Frankier,
It’s no hassle, that’s not what I meant but if they want letters addressed in a special way that should be known at every post office in the world, otherwise how are we to know? We haven’t all been to Padre Pio’s tomb. Probably most people haven’t been there so it is ridiculous for them to expect everyone to know that post won’t get through their computer system unless the envelope is addressed the way you told us.
Josephine
I`m sorry, I didn`t mean anything personal and I understand what you say but I was just trying to help in some miniscule way. I would have thought that the people who informed me would know what they were doing, unless It was sent on 1st April and I didn`t twig.
I am now wondering if I dreamt the whole thing up owing to the comments I have received.
If I wasn`t slumbering though I don`t understand why they would tell anyone to address a letter in a certain way unless it was on the instructions of the postal service. Maybe it is only a way of being certain that a letter will arrive. After all, I didn`t say that it wouldn`t be delivered.
As for the rest of the world being informed. Assuming I am correct and the Italians wish to have letters addressed in this way, does the Post Office in the UK
tell them, or the rest of the world for that matter, that they have a preferred way of addressing their letters
if, indeed, there is a special way?
I think the easiest way for all concerned is for everyone to do as they like as long as they don`t miss the envelope altogether.
As for visiting Padre Pio`s tomb: I have never been there either.
Frankier, no offence taken, but I agree with you that we should just all continue to do what we’ve been doing. The UK post office doesn’t bother about how envelopes are addressed, as I know from a friend of mine who was a postal worker and she told me they went to a lot of bother to delivery badly addressed envelopes.
That’s why I thought the Italians had a cheek expecting us all to know that they had a special system and if not used letters would not be delivered. I thought that is what you meant, why you mentioned it.
I understand better now and will just write my envelopes the way I always do.
It seems to me that Pope Francis, in his Holy Spirit-inspired wisdom, is merely embodying the fine principle of St. Thomas Aquinas: “Prius est vita quam doctrina; vita ducit ad scientiam veritatis”.
You obviously missed the thread where we discussed the fact that the truly educated (no offence intended – I’m quoting from a previous discussion) always translate any words or phrases that may be unfamiliar to some readers, at least at first time use. So, perhaps bear that in mind for the future? Just in case someone doesn’t know what you mean…
I, however, do know what you mean and my reply is that the teachings of St Thomas Aquinas are obviously the last thing on Pope Francis’ mind, because at no point in his interactions with those outside the church does he give any hint that doctrine/truth is important – in fact, he’s said the opposite.
Still, you have given us a laugh with “Holy Spirit-inspired wisdom”. You really are a scream 😀
Well YOU could have translated it! 🙂
“First, the life and teaching; life leads to the knowledge of the truth” It is this, methinks.
Crofterlady,
I thought somebody would twig much earlier that I hadn’t translated. Wanted to give Perplexed a chance to do so but, guess what, no can do. So, yes, Crofterlady – linguist that you are and superbly so (let’s forget about “cappa magna”) – have got it on the button.
However, Perplexed, appears to make the not uncommon mistake of reading St Thomas Aquinas out of context. There is no way that the Angelic Doctor would support the utterances of Pope Francis in his encouragement to atheists and Protestants to do their best to make the world a better place, try to have a relationship with Jesus and forget about the Church which is, at best, an optional extra. Were that true, then the Pope should, in conscience, order the closure of every Catholic school, college and university in the world. Not just the traditional ones…
Quoted on our website (page on The Church) for all the world to see – Perplexed and Pope Francis included – is the following quote from St Thomas Aquinas (in English, take note 😀 )
“To reject any article of the faith is to reject the faith itself… God’s word has set up the Church as man’s infallible teacher and guide. If a man, therefore, rejects one article of the faith, and says that he believes all the other articles, he believes these by his own choice and opinion, not by faith. Rejecting one article of faith, he rejects the whole authority of the Church and he rejects the authority of God which has set up and authorized the Church to teach truth.” St Thomas Aquinas
That should make scary reading for the Fans of Pope Francis – “outside the Church there is no salvation” is a teaching found not only in Sacred Scripture (e.g. Mark 16:16) but also [prepare to gasp] in the documents of Vatican II 😯 Check out LG 14, no less 😯
So, yes, those outside the Church should, of course, be attracted to it by seeing the good living of its members, but if the Pope really neglects to preach the necessity of the Church because he thinks the atheists and Protestants are today so impressed with our contemporary Catholic brothers and sisters, then he’s even more off the wall than I previously thought. An essential part of missionary work today (to which we are all obliged) is to explain that the members of the Church are unlikely to attract anyone these days but that doesn’t affect either the truths taught by the Church or the marks of the Church – one of which is that the Church is “holy”. The pontiff should be explaining that what this means is that the entire Church, from the very beginning, is holy, all the saints in Heaven, the souls in Purgatory and the Church militant on earth, still battling Satan and all his wiles, in order to achieve the personal sanctity which is God’s will for us all. And that is because Christ is holy and Christ and His Church are one.
Here endeth the lesson. Must dash but if this is not clear, let me know and I’ll try again. It was I who coined the saying “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
It was, honest 😀
And please translate on joke threads! I’ve missed a lot of jokes because they’re in Scottish on this blog. If I wrote in my dialect y’all wouldn’t understand me. 🙂
3LittleShepherds,
Here’s one – fully translated…
Scots/American joke…
The Texan tourist was telling Sandy about how big everything was back home. “I can hop on a horse and it will take three days to ride to the other side of the ranch.”
“Och aye,” said Sandy, “I’ve got a horse that’s like that too.”
Translation:
Texans are noted for their huge ranches, so this Texan is explaining that it takes three days to ride a horse to the other side, as a means of showing the massive size of his ranch.
Scots Sandy says: “Oh yes, I’ve got a horse like that too”
However, in Sandy’s case, the horse is just slow (maybe old and/or lazy). He misunderstands why the Texan is telling him that his horse takes so long to reach the other side of his ranch. There’s no way that Sandy will live on any farm remotely the size of a Texan ranch.
Purpose of Joke
This joke demonstrates that not all Scots are as bright and intelligent as the Editor of Catholic Truth 😀
Get it ?
Oh, I get it! 😆
I could not believe my eyes when I read this article about Pope Francis apologising for Catholics persecuting Protestants!
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2014/07/28/pope-apologizes-for-catholic-persecution-pentecostals/5HQGujRn8fagi3NpYl8b2M/story.html
This is interesting – from Dici (SSPX newsletter online)
The new DICI 299 is on line
Pope Francis has again granted an interview to the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, who proclaims his atheism everywhere, loud and clear. The last time, in October, someone noticed that the conversation had not been recorded but transcribed from memory…. This time, according to the spokesman of the Holy See, quotation marks were lacking….
These formal remarks, as much as they may reveal the lack of seriousness of this journalist and of those who allow him to operate and operate again, are nothing compared to the statements that are reported as having been pronounced by the Pope: in October, “Everyone has his own idea of Good and Evil and everyone must choose to follow the Good and fight Evil according to the idea that he has formed for himself.” In July: “The problem (of priests marrying) certainly exists, but it is not widespread. It will take time, but there are solutions and I will find them.”
What one expects are not reflections on Scalfari’s unreliability, but a clear denial. In this context: against relativism, against the marriage of priests. Now they are content to remove the October interview from the Vatican website and to ridicule the “unsophisticated readers” of the July interview. That is a bit inadequate!
Certainly, Fr. Lombardi is in a very delicate situation. He ceaselessly has to correct, reframe, nuance…. He must constantly explain with infinitesimal subtleties…. Lombardi here, Lombardi there…. But what we need is not a Figaro, but rather a rigorous, vigorous Roman Observer (= Osservatore Romano). No doubt that is too much to ask nowadays!
Father Alain Lorans
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